Yes it’s true so far this summer my lens has been full of sprint cars. I was born and raised on Dirt Modifieds, and I still love ❤️ attending a good Big block race. With this being said there is nothing like a winged sprint car running wide open on a tight dirt track. This summer I am shooting for Race Pro Weekly, so this has giving me more opertunities to cover races that I might not have been able to in the past.

My Spring started at the Utica Rome Speedway for a 360 Sprint car show, as well as Big Block Modifieds. This years spring was very wet, so the Utica Rome track was a bit of a challenge for the track crew. It felt great getting back to the track to cover some of my favorite race cars on earth. Both classes had a good amount of entries for the nights racing action. 360 sprint cars hit the track first for their heat races. A couple laps into the first race the dust was so bad they had to stop the race to apply more water. I know with all the rain we had you would think dust wouldn’t be an issue, but it was. After a ton of water was put on to the parched surface, and the sun made its way behind the grand stands, the track was all set for a good night of racing. A few teams pulled out early. They should have stayed put, because the track and racing was great for the rest of the night.

Next up was a Sunday trip to Pennsylvania. We made our way to Action Track USA for the 4th annual “Dick Tobias Classic”. This was my first visit to the popular track that runs SpeeedSTR’s, 600cc Micros, and Modified like Slingshots. The place was packed with both cars and fans. I absolutely loved this place. The racing was top notch, as well as the facility. Richie Tobias and crew do a fantastic job with this little jewel of a race track. I hope to get back to The Action Track again this year.

Third on my summer schedule was the World Of Outlaws Sprint Cars at Weedsport Speedway. If you haven’t been to the newly redone Weedsport Speedway I highly suggest you do. The WOO sprint cars do not make as many visits to upstate NY as they used to but, when they do it is awesome. I was blessed to be able to cover this race for Race Pro Weekly this year. Butterfly’s filled my gut as I walked into the pit area looking at the line of stacker trailers, and the best sprint cars in the nation.

The track was perfect during hot laps, qualifying and the first few heat races. Unforchanitly Mother Nature thought the track needed some water. 😩 we waited it out for a while but the rain held on long enough that they had to reschedule the race in October. Sad night, but I was able to get some good shots. I will see you in October lol.

In between these sprint car races that I was covering, I was also covering Flat Track motorcycles, and big block Modified action around central NY.

Last winter I made plans to head to PA for the USAC Eastern Storm week. A full week of wingless sprint cars, Midgets, and the historic Silver Crown cars. My wife Tammy and I made our way to Lincoln Speedway for round two of the Eastern Eastern Storm.

This was my first time seeing USAC Sprint Cars, and boy am I glad I did. These things are awesome. I love winged sprint cars, but this is a whole different deal. As far as picture taking they are just beautiful to shoot. Winged cars stay as straight as they can for speed, these guys do the complete opposite. They drive down into the corners and throw it completely sideways. Wow 😳 that is wicked.

I was able to shoot from both the inside and outside of the track. I was smiling the entire night. It was great watching the top drivers from USAC battling on the popular tracks in PA. The racing was good from green to checkard at Lincoln. We absolutely loved it.

Tammy and I left Lincoln and headed toward Williams Grove to spend the night. Thursday we woke up had breakfast and cruised around PA killing time before we headed the the famous Williams Grove Speedway. Along with the sprint cars, we were also going to see some USAC/ ARDC Midgets on the fast 1/2 mile oval.

We pulled into the track a bit early, so we set up our lawn chairs, and watched the race cars pull in for the nights action. I wasn’t shooting for anybody but my self at the Grove. It was fine because of the nice access that is avalible to the fans in the infield. We walked through the pits checking out the cars and drivers. It was very cool getting up close to these guys that we see on TV during the year.

Tammy and I made our way over to turns 1 & 2 with our chairs to enjoy the nights races. Both races were great from start to finish. I have found a new love in racing. Wingless sprint cars are great to watch. A bucket list item for all race fans.

After the full night of racing we started our 3 1/2 hr trip home. We pulled into our driveway at 3:10am Friday morning. I’m not 18 any more but getting home that late was worth every minute of lost sleep. 😴

Again gin between these races I was going to motorcycle races and covered some local car shows. My summer was kicking into high gear for sure.

In June I made my way back to Weedsport Speedway for the first ever Ultimate Wingless Shootout. Empire Super Sprints/ URC drivers removed their wings for a shot of winning $5000 at Weedsport. Again rain threatened us all night long. It did rain a bit early on, setting the race back a bit, but we were able to get the entire show in. Along with the sprintcars, the very popular Sportsman Modifieds were on the card as well.

The night was full of action, from great side by side racing to sprint cars flipping and landing in trees. Yes I said landing in trees. Three laps into practice one driver launched his car over the turn one wall perching himself in a tree just outside of the track. The driver was un injured, and the track crew learned how to get a race car out of a tree. That wasn’t the only incident we had during the night. Three or four more cars got in their top before the final checkard flag flew.

Below is Mark Smith the winner of the A-Main and $5000.
My self I really enjoyed the show, and I hope this becomes a regular thing up here in NY. I think this might be a way to get more young race fans to the track.

July 1st I made my way back to the Fulton Speedway for some 360 Sprint Cars, Big block mods, sports and, latemodles, and fireworks 💥. I know that’s a full night of racing. This was the second to last night of Sprint week for the Empire Super Sprints (ESS). The weather was great and the pit area was full of top runners in all divisions. With all of the rain we have had the track was fast and heavy the entire night.

As usual The racing was excellent in all classes. Fulton is a great place for dirt track racing. It seems like there is always a battle going on in the front of the field. Above ESS Feature winner Jason Barney at speed during his heat race.

So that’s if for now, my summer is cranking up with lots more racing ahead of me for the three months. And yes a lot more sprint cars. Look for my Motorcycle, and Modified post coming here soon.

Hello everybody, come on in have a seat. In this series I will be talking about race tracks that I started flinging to as a kid and what dirt Modified racing was like back then.

Dirt track racing in the 7o’s and 80’was what I lived for. We lived on Rt 41 in Scott, NY. This was the route that a lot of the race car haulers would take to get to Weedsport Speedway, and Rolling Wheels Raceway. On a normal race night drivers like Mike Colsten, Don Beagle, Carl ” Bub” Nagle, and The Pink Panther Chuck Akulis would drive right by my house. This was awesome seeing my local heros passing by as I was getting ready to head to the track my self.

What was really cool was when one of tracks were running a special show, like a Crc series race or a mid week 100 lapper. Then the big guys from out of town would pull their open trailers, and ramp trucks up the hill near our house. I could hear them before I could see them. After a while I could tell who it was before they went by. Horton and his beautiful statewide #3 ramp truck, Brightbill, Tobias, Brenn, Hearn, you name it they went by.

We knew who was going to be racing that night before we even got there, now this was cool. My Grand father would pick up my dad and myself every Sunday afternoon. After the 45 min drive we would hang a right into the Speedway. As we pulled into the parking area the time the pits were on our right, outside of turn one. Butterfly’s would fill my stomach as we drove out into the field to park. ﻿

Open trailers lined up at the pit gate while the bleachers filled up with loyal race fans. My Grandfather and Dad would buy the tickets and we would walk through the gate behind the front stretch. The place was always busy with people roaming around, and the lines to the food building were starting to form. The smell of Hoffman hotdogs exited from the building on our left, making my mouth water as soon as I walking in. It seemed like there were 100 hot dogs on the grill at any given time.

Just behind the announcers tower was where the lucky number program table was. The guys yelled “get your lucky number program here”. Along with a guy selling the Gator News Racing paper. To the right of us was the popcorn stand, hand cut french fry booth, and the photo stand. All the way down into turn one was the pit entrance, and the men’s bathroom. We would always go to the left and enter the bleacher area at the flaggers stand. Mud packers were always making laps on the very wet clay surface. We would sit in the same area each week, 1/2 between turn four and the flaggers stand.

This gets me all excited just talking about it. The track would always come in pretty quick. Making hot laps fast and exciting. The latemodels would be the first race cars on the track. After making a few slow laps the surface be ready hot laps. These cars were more like street stocks of Today. They always put on a great show, rubbing fenders and using their bumpers. Modified greats like Castle, Paine, Kappeser started in the latemodel class.

Bob Vormwald in his always fast Chevelle. (Unknown photographer)

After the latemodels completed their hot laps it was time for the Big blocks. I remember starring down into turn one as the modifieds enterd the track on the high side of turns one and two. This is why we were there, the Mods. Jake Johnson, My Hero Will Cagle, Jimmy Winks, Pete Cortes, Ray Delmata, Johnny Podalak, Mert Treichler, Dave Late. The list goes on. It was Sunday so most everybody was there to end their weekend of racing.

During the 70’s “The Tampa Terror” Will Cagle won six track championships. Dave lape Got one from Cagle in 1977 and Jumpin Jack started the 80’s with a track championship.

Donny Bushbacher, Mike Colsten, Walt Mitchell, And Jim Gabriel won Championships in the Latemodele division. Denny Plank was the man to beat int the 320 Limited Sportsman class in the mid 70’s.

Denny Planck and his crew. ( unknown photographer).

Back then the cars were not the cookie cutter cars that we watch today. Drivers and crew members would cut, weld, and grind on their machines to get an advantage on their fellow racers. Innovation was moving fast back then. Coupe body’s, and coaches were on their way out for the most part in the middle 70’s. The Gremlin, Vega, and Pinto made up most of the cars that raced on the DIRT circuit. ﻿

Every week the stands were packed with fans, and the pits were full of fast race cars . I remember yelling for my favorite drive for the entire 35 lap feature. Lap after lap. I loved watching Cagle set up the car in front of him to gain a spot in the heavily stacked field. Sometimes he would move a guy if he had to. I did not agree with that, but hey when your racing for a living every position counts. The crowd would go nuts if he moved somebody to get by It was awesome.

Young guns like Alan Johnson, and his brother Danny were making their way into the modified division with consistent runs at Weedsport. I remember Danny in the Sicerbeaux 0 car.That car was very cool.

Weedsport did not have walls around it then. A car would go off of turn one into the corn field. We would watch to see them re enter the track on the back stretch with corn stalks packed in the front shocks. Flagger Bobby Watson could see if the car was still moving from his perch. After the heat races legendary announcer Jack Burgess would talk about the nights racing so far, and call out lucky numbers from the program.

We would have a couple track dogs and a drink while the crews prepared their cars for the feature races. Everybody would make their way back to the bleachers when they heard the pit Stewart calling for the latemodels to the staging area. Some times they would have the drivers bring their cars out onto the track for Kiddie Rides. We would line up at the gate on the front stretch to hopefully get a ride with my favorite driver. The officials would pack us kids all over these cars for a couple laps around the track. I remember the smell, noice and heat that was coming off the cars as we made our laps. Plus seeing the drivers without their helmets was very cool too. Good times for sure.

Both feature races seemed to be exciting almost every week. First the latemodels, then the Big Block Modifieds. After the last feature’s Checkered flags fell, we made our way back to Grandpas car. On the way home we would talk about the nights races, and what went on during the feature. We all had different drivers that we pulled for. This made it more interesting how we each viewed the race.

Donnie Schatz earns his 7th win of the grueling WOO Sprint Car Schedule. Weedsport Speedway opened it gates for the first time this season with a double bill show that proved to be a good one. If you haven’t visited Weedsport Speedway in a few years, then you really should make a point to do so.

Crome the well prepped track surface, to the new grandstands, and let’s not for get the HUGE Jumbotron. Along with of those cool nuances let’s talk about the LED lights that light up the track. These things are awesome. I shot most of the night without a flash on. With these new lights it changes they way we as photographers can shoot a race, but that is for a different blog post.

Ok enough of that stuff lets get back to why we were at Weedsport. Sprint Cars, Sprint cars, Sprint Cars, that’s all I have to say. The WOO Sprint cars made their way up from PA to give us Dirt Modified fans a thrill.

Twenty Eight sprints cars were on Hand along with 35 DIRT Sportsman. $1000 to win the sportsman feature and a cool $10,000 goes to the winner of the Sprint car A-Main

Donny Schatz seems to have his stuff together when he shows up at NYS dirt tracks. Heck let’s face it he has his stuff together where ever he goes. Pictured above Joey Saldana set a new track record in his Famous ” Beef Packers” car. Joey ran flat out around the tacky banked Weedsport Speedway at 12.274 seconds. Saldana was a touch faster then Hodnett, Logan Schuchart, and Daryan Pittman.

After the thrilling Sportsman race the sprint cars rolled out onto the speedway for the pre-race program. The news track lights started to go off and on in a sequence that went around the track along with some fireworks to get the crowd pumped for what they were about to witness, Sprint Cars.

As the cars fired up in front of the push trucks, music blasted through the High Def sound system, and the packed grandstands roared with excitement. Fans waited for the Four abreast parade, that still gives me goosebumps. After a couple parade laps the driveres stepped down on the throttle to clean out their 410ci power plants.

Logan Schuchart lead the all star field to the green. Logan is still looking for his first WOO feature win. Let me tell you Schuchart did a great job out front all night except for the last five laps. Schatz started 9th with 8 heavy hitters ahead of him. I reall didn’t think Donny was going to win, but you can never count him out. Pittman and Hodnett got together and into the fence at the start of the race. This definitely changed how the race played out in my opinion.

At a WOO event the leaders run into lap traffic after a few laps, and this race was no different. Logan got out front early keeping Saldana, Gravel, and #2 Shane Stewart behind him.

After a few caution flags I noticed that the #15 car had made his way into the top three. Schatz had been working the bottom most of the race picking off one car at a time.

Meanwhile Logan was running both the top and bottom trying to get through traffic. Lap 30 Schuchart went up high in turn one giving Schatz the bottom, and the room to move into the lead.

I must admit I was hoping to see Schuchart in the Bobby Allen car take the win, but the elder Schatz prevailed. David Gravel finished third, Daryn Pittman, and Grad Sweet rounded out the top five.

Just after the race winner finished in victory lane the sky’s opened up ending a great night of racing.